Game 4, Boston vs. Bylsma. And Bylsma is losing for the fourth straight game. And then explaining that Marc-Andre Fleury is the Penguins' goalie of the future. Many laughs ensue. (But you don't see Sidney Crosby laughing.) Getty Images photo.

Mike Gillis has a priority list longer than the Obama administration’s list of monitored phone numbers, so we almost hesitate to bring up this small trifle. Alas, the key word was “almost” as we kick of this Tuesday morning Hat Trick of issues surrounding the beloved Vancouver Canucks and the somewhat lesser regarded NHL.

1. It’s pretty clear the Canucks most certainly need another centre, and there is little doubt there will be some other changes up front, as well. Certainly Brendan Gaunce is going to be given every chance to make this team and while Nicklas Jensen is still more boy than man, nobody knows how quickly he’ll mature, so who knows, maybe he’ll be on the scene.
But when it comes to bringing in new people — and again we stress perhaps the priority is somewhere between the quality of the new coach and the size of the logo on the letterhead, wouldn’t it be nice if they could actually succeed in the shootout? Consider Mason Raymond and Max Lapierre, two guys who have had some limited success in shootouts, are almost certainly departing. And even the dumbest goalie on the planet will likely have clued in to Alex Burrows’ deke-to-the-forehand-and-roof-the-backhand move by next year. And when your stud Sedin twins can’t even score in the shootout, wearing the Tre Kronor — where they seem to do all their best work these days — you need some help, particularly when the points being contested next season, given realignment, might mean the difference between making and missing the playoffs.
We’re not asking for Pavel Datsyuk-like success, but somebody who at least has the slightest idea of how he might go about scoring. The recurring nightmare of seeing Jannik Hansen going in on a shootout will not depart this head. And unless something happens … no, that could never happen again, not with a new coach. Could it?

2. Dan Bylsma would indeed be the perfect coach for the Canucks if for no other reason than the fact he is already so well versed in goaltender controversies. He is able to say the most absurd things with a straight face, all brought about by some contract that was signed years ago forcing him to make a spectacle of himself. Even though Marc-Andre Fleury cannot stop a beachball these days, Bylsma was able to stand in front of an assembled media throng and proclaim him the Penguins’ No. 1 goalie going forward, this after the guy looked like a kid trying to pick up his marbles in the schoolyard in his last two seasons of playoff play. And he managed to choke this out because Fleury has two more years at $5 million per left on his deal. Tell us now, who better than to come in and assume the Roberto Luongo fiasco? Gillis has said he wants an experienced guy for this group. How could any coach more ably demonstrate his readiness for this job than with a performance like that?

3. When Harry Neale was coach and then later GM of the Vancouver Canucks, he was the strangest mixture of humour and irreverence you would ever see in a delightful man. It was that humour that helped get him through the years of hard service he saw here and, later, in Detroit, where he coached a dreadful team before moving on to be Bob Cole’s colour guy on Hockey Night in Canada. When he first got the job, this agent felt that for sure he would lose his cool at some point and use one of his favourite expressions on air and promptly be out on his ear. But no chance. He had a great filter and kept the humour and he was a massive success. Going from management to the media isn’t often viewed as a good thing by hockey people, but it was great for Neale, who found a line of work in which he was genuinely gifted. That was acknowledged today when he was named to go into the media section of the Hockey Hall of Fame. He is a great choice and someone has already suggested that his picture should hang right beside Cole’s, given they worked so long and so well together.

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